The persistent problem of rogue Afghan soldiers and police turning their guns on U.S. and allied troops is a “very serious threat” to the war effort, which is predicated on placing security responsibility in Afghan hands, the Associated Press reported the U.S. military’s top officer saying Sunday.

When the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff gets this riled up publicly over a topic embarrassing to an ally, you know the stuff has hit the fan.

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey – who must have had the Obama administration’s ok to cut loose – blasted the Afghan government for failing to take seriously the problem of insider attacks on NATO troops, AP reporter Robert Burns wrote.

“We’re all seized with (the) problem,” Dempsey was quoted as saying. “You can’t whitewash it. We can’t convince ourselves that we just have to work harder to get through it. Something has to change.”

Such attacks have killed at least 51 allied troops this year, most of them Americans.

NATO officials want much-improved screening of recruits and to take “other precautionary measures.”